


In Dreams

by Lucky107



Series: The Wanderer [7]
Category: Fallout 3
Genre: F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Mild Language, Spoilers, vault 106
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 09:40:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7309819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucky107/pseuds/Lucky107
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The glowing screen flashes 'TERMINAL LOCKED'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> In Dreams - Roy Orbison - 1963

"Man, it stinks!"  Butch DeLoria complains loudly, though he's muted by the sleeve he presses to his face.  As desperately as he tries, he can't escape the overpowering stench of fecal matter and decay—it's already woven into the fabric of his clothing.  "The Vault never smelled like this."

His companion, who hovers over one of the only functional computer terminals within the vicinity, hardly seems aware of the smell.  Curtly, she reminds him, "We didn't wallow in our own shit for the past two hundred years."

Butch shrugs off her response coolly, allowing his attention to be redirected to a scrap of paper on the next table.  He's wondering about the over-abundance of mathematical equations that go right over his head when Cassidy's sudden and aggressive burst of anger throws him out of focus.

It starts with a slam of fists against the metal workbench, causing a whirlwind of scattered loose leaf paper.  The tension is punctuated by a single pencil that hits the floor to shatter the silence.

With his 10mm drawn and ready to fire before he can confirm it was only Cassidy, he's relieved when she murmurs, "Come on."

The glowing screen flashes 'TERMINAL LOCKED'.

\- - -

Entering the now-defunct terminal station, the pungent smell hits Cassidy like a wall - or so Butch is led to believe, given her immediate and staggering response a couple of paces behind him.  By the time he notices she's no longer shadowing him, it's too late: the girl standing behind him looks as though she's seen a ghost.

"Hey, Cassidy."  He calls out to her in an attempt to refocus her attention, but she looks right through him.  "Hey!  What's gotten into you?"

Embraced by her stupor, the younger Tunnel Snake looks simply mystified as she drifts right past Butch and further into the terminal station.

Butch swears he hears her murmur, "... Father?"

 

When they activate the control switch and the door glides open, Cassidy inhales a sharp breath.

There at the terminal sits a man clad in white, sipping a piping hot mug of coffee while scrolling through a report.  He turns to the sound of her surprise, but shows none of his own.  Instead, he smiles a pleasant smile as though he's been expecting her all along and Cassidy's heart skips a beat.

She hesitates only a moment before gravitating towards the stranger, unaware that the look on her face gives away her disbelief.  "... Father?"

Cassidy sees him here as clear as day and though she knows he can't be real - of course he can't, she saw her father die that day - she wants to believe that he's been given a second chance.  After all, if Augustus could survive the radiation levels in the Jefferson Memorial, then so could her father.

Right...?

"I thought—" She reaches out to touch him, to confirm that this isn't just a dream, and the apparition disappears.  "I—"

"Cassidy!"  Butch hollers, grabbing her arm with force enough to spin her around.  She still looks lost, like she's in some sort of dream, but slowly those haunted brown eyes travel up to find his face.  "You back now?  What the hell is going on with you?"

As if the sternness of his tone shakes her right out of it, Cassidy brushes Butch off.  "It's nothing.  Let's go."

\- - -

"Shh," Cassidy whispers, instinctively taking up a defensive position.  "We're not alone."

Though Butch can't see anything down the long, narrow corridor, he knows better than to betray Cassidy's judgment.  She moves like a wildcat stalking its prey, her body shrinking in size to remain undetected without a single ounce of conscious thought.

Slowly - and carefully - they move through the corridor and Butch tries to detect the threat.  It's difficult when the only thing he can focus on with any clarity is the way Cassidy's hands are shaking uncontrollably two paces ahead.

 

Cassidy's trying to identify which direction the shadow at the end of the corridor is facing when the stranger is suddenly moving in their direction—quickly.

She's on her feet in a heartbeat, driven by adrenaline to knock their attacker in the face, when it becomes apparent in the dull lighting that this is no enemy at all.  No, she would recognize that face anywhere, as serious and as guarded as ever when the pale blue light washes over the features.

"Amata?"  Cassidy murmurs, allowing her fists to drop to her sides lamely.

Amata opens her mouth to speak, but—"You idiot!"

There's a bright flash of light and a sudden rain of warm mist.  As if awoken from a dream, Cassidy drops to the floor beside the expired Vault dweller and confirms that he is most certainly not her long-time best friend.  Instead, her best friend is fisting the front of her jacket aggressively and pulling her to her feet.

"Enough with the bullshit," Butch says vilely.  "You're going to tell me what the hell is going on here.  Right now."

"I don't know," Cassidy insists.  "I just thought... never mind. It's not important."

\- - -

As they make their way down the stairs, Butch following so closely behind Cassidy that they're constantly bumping into one another, the darkness does nothing for their perception.  In fact, it's so dark that the presence of any lurking Vault 106 survivors is masked completely until they shuffle right into his trap.

The survivor laughs a shrill, hyena-like laugh before popping his stealth boy and disappearing into the dark.

With him goes Butch and for a moment, Cassidy is paralyzed by the fear that she's completely alone in the bowels of a foreign Vault full of lunatics.  Her eyes scan the darkness in frantic, eclectic motions and briefly she spots the fabric of Butch's jacket in her periphery.

"Butch—" But it's not Butch.  It's Wally Mack and Paul Hannon.

Cassidy's vision flickers and stutters before her entire world turns black.

 

When Cassidy comes to, it's to a rough and anxious shaking of her shoulder.  Leaning over her is Butch DeLoria - or so it appears - and he's calling her name loudly in an attempt to wake her.

The last thing she can remember with any clarity is the fight - or what was supposed to be a fight - and she finds herself clumsily trying to arm herself out of fear.  "Don't," she whispers, though her back touches a computer terminal and halts her retreat.  "Go away!"

"Hey, easy!"  Butch insists.  "It's just me!  Man, what in the hell has gotten into you?"

After a long moment of deliberation, Cassidy turns her gaze towards the floor to avoid Butch's curious blue eyes and confesses, "I... I saw Paul. I saw Amata and... and I saw my father.  I know it's not real - there's something wrong with this Vault - but I—"

All along, Butch acted like he couldn't see it and so Cassidy kept telling herself that she didn't see it, either.  But all along she was allowing reality and fiction to intertwine because she was too weak to admit that she was weak... and that, she realises, almost cost her everything.

But Butch takes her hand with both of his own, encasing it protectively, and asks, "Do you feel that?"

"Feel what?"  Cassidy asks, feeling little more than the dull ache in the back of her skull.

"The warmth of my hands," he clarifies, offering her hand a gentle squeeze.  "That's real."


End file.
